National Parks

I'd come to Yellowstone for just the sense of awe I was beginning to feel, what Thoreau called "the tonic of wilderness." That tonic was already starting to cure my New York City-induced nature deficit disorder, blotting from my consciousness screeching F trains, drop-dead deadlines and fickle WiFi connections. But Jason wasn't impressed. "Too much prey around here," he said. "Let's find some predators."

We left the bright valley and drove into Lamar's darker side, a splinter canyon of thick forest.

The Obama family heads to Yellowstone National Park on Saturday — thanks, in part, to Douglas Brinkley.

…The off-the-record dinner, reported Thursday by Vanity Fair, must have made an impression on the president. A few days later, Brinkley got a call from Interior Secretary Ken Salazar inviting him to drop by. The men spent two hours talking about conservation history, wildlife protection and where Obama should visit if he went to a national park.

Johnson, a musician, storyteller and interpretive specialist at Yosemite National Park, is determined to inspire young inner-city African Americans to experience what he says transformed his life. Less than 1 percent of the visitors to Yosemite are African American, a number he's eager to improve.

Laura Joss, deputy director of the National Park Service's Intermountain Region, said the park's biggest threat now is apathy. A new generation must be educated about the importance of preserving such wild places.

"We have to reaffirm our determination to make others care about the park for now and the future," she said.

Zion's importance as a scenic refuge was reaffirmed earlier this year when Congress passed a bill designating 85 percent of the park as wilderness and the Virgin River inside Zion as Utah's first Wild and Scenic River.

We support a proposal by the Obama administration to cut by more than half the number of machines allowed each day this winter. There is no doubt that 318 — the proposed daily limit — is much better than 720 per day, the number allowed last winter under a Bush administration rule. But we prefer an even smaller number: zero.

Service could seize land in six parks, including Angel Island, if the state goes through with a proposal to close 219 state parks, officials said Wednesday.

… Jon Jarvis, the Pacific regional director of the National Park Service, sent a letter to Schwarzenegger on June 8 warning him that the federal government could take back closed parks that were given to California under the Federal Lands and Parks Program.

Park rangers and volunteers said they were not sure whether gun possession in the park would increase or not when the new law takes effect, partly because they have no idea how many visitors are illegally carrying concealed weapons now. Hardly anyone is ever caught, though current law requires owners to lock or store their guns in a trunk or glove box while in the parks.

The Park Service already has won water rights for 25 parks in nine Western states, the last two for Colorado's Black Canyon and Great Sand Dunes. Eight more agreements are being negotiated.

This week's release of 16 billion gallons of water through the Black Canyon — designed to mimic the scouring rush of spring runoff — will begin the process of flushing sediment, algae, debris and vegetation.

Americans turn to the things that matter in times of crisis, so it’s only fitting that during a deep recession, lawmakers ended 35 years of effort with a wilderness designation on 250,000 acres of Rocky Mountain National Park.

The economy was a shambles. Millions of Americans were out of work. Saying something drastic needed to be done, the newly elected president announced a massive economic stimulus package aimed at repairing the nation's sagging infrastructure and putting people back to work.

The first "emergency agency" established by President Franklin D. Roosevelt was the Civilian Conservation Corps, which eventually put 3 million men to work in the national park system.